When Queerness is Not Emergency: Indigenous Intimacies, Misused Resistance, and Structural Injustice in Adivasi Chhotaudepur

The article analyzes queerness among Adivasi communities in Chhotaudepur, Gujarat, contesting metropolitan queer frameworks that emphasize visibility, identity assertion, and legal recognition. Ethnographic fieldwork (2024–2026), including participant observation and semi-structured interviews across multiple villages, reveals that gender fluidity—manifested in rituals like marriage roles and Geriyani—has historically been part of Adivasi worlds without social crisis. However, religious homogenization is “deodorizing” these indigenous intimacies. Critically, the study shows the misalignment in NGO-led interventions: by focusing on bureaucratic certification and identity workshops, they fail to address the region’s primary emergencies—water scarcity, seasonal migration, and exploitative labor. Furthermore, the entry of queer individuals within spiritual economies often reproduces internal hierarchies rather than pure resistance. Consequently, the article proposes an Adivasi-queer politics that refuses artificial separation of identity and economy, grounding justice in infrastructural dignity and collective livability.